Green Lantern Corps #37 Review

“I’ll show you fierce, ya Poozer!”

GodHead is in the home stretch with four books remaining in which to conclude the struggle between Highfather and the what’s left of the ring wielders of the various Corps of the emotional spectrum. So far this conflict has leaned heavily in the favor of the New Gods, but recent events show that this is far from over. This week’s Green Lantern Corps #37 reveals that not all of Highfather’s followers are as devout as we have been led to believe.

I’ve said throughout this event that the characterization of Highfather and the New Gods has been anything but clear, waffling between a god-like altruism and an obsessive compulsion to defeat Darkseid no matter the cost, including sacrificing the beings you are supposedly trying to protect. This issue Van Jensen keeps the pendulum swung in the latter direction as Highfather begins his conversion of their prisoners to serve in his crusade. The coming war with Darkseid will find Earth as its final battlefield and Highfather has no misgivings about using the lanterns let alone the entire superhero population of Earth as his footsoldiers.

For Highfather it doesn’t matter who he has to sacrifice in order to win,

There’s something more at play with Highfather that’s hard to discern at this point, but given the observations from Malhedron I feel there’s an implication that something is influencing Highfather in some way that’s amplifying his emotions. It could be that he has failed to recognize his own limitations and that he is being effected by the white energy more than he realizes. We’ve got a few more issues for this particular part of the plot to unfold but for now Highfather’s actions have cost him the allegiance of one of his own.

The defection of Malhedron provides a convenient out to get Sinestro, John Stewart and Saint Walker out of harms way but they return to challenge Highfather in a spirited confrontation which has John outsmarting Uggha and showing Stewart moving down the path towards the fate we see in Green Lantern Corps: Futures End #1. It’s not the kind of tactics I like to see from John, and I disagree with them on a personal level, but given recent events and the potential future we’ve seen it makes sense that we see this sort of posturing from him.

There are a couple of narrative bumps in the road that continue with this issue, one being that we still don’t get an explanation about what happened with John’s Star Sapphire ring that he received last issue. I certainly didn’t expect to see it last long, but I also didn’t expect it to get swept under rug without a little explanation. The other thing which bothers me a little more is how the deal went down between Iroque and Highfather. I mean, if Highfather was willing to negotiate with the Indigo Tribe, why not the rest of the corps? It would have made things a whole lot smoother to be certain. I felt an opportunity was missed to provide some much needed exposition on how this transpired in order to be able to parse things in my head a bit.

Kilowog has seen better days, indeed

While the script for this issue is above average, the art is another story. The art chores are split between Bernard Chang and Mirko Colak and to say that their styles don’t compliment each other would be an understatement. Chang’s work here is consistent with what we’ve come to expect, but the Colak’s contributions seem rushed and lack the detail needed to blend in with Chang’s. The entire latter half of the issue is jarring in its contrast with the initial half of the book, and while I’ve stated before that I dislike Chang’s version of Kilowog Colak’s is absolutely atrocious. One consolation was getting a chance to see another fantastic Darwyn Cooke cover, though.

Green Lantern Corps #37 tips the scales ever so slightly back towards the Lanterns and further paints Highfather as a despotic ruler blindly obsessed with winning at all costs. Van Jensen’s script propels the GodHead event towards its conclusion, however the issue is hampered by having two artists whose styles go together like oil and water and the jolting differences are impossible to overlook, impacting the book’s overall rating. Three out of four lanterns.

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